The Horror's Seal
The Horror's Seal is a canon fic describing the fall of Sirenne and Elidra's second defeat. *Pre-written and originally updated daily (though the finale came out late) *Written by EightballPixels *Completed *Features: Akira, Phantasm, Orianne, Sirenne, Elidra, Faroku Chapter 1 On a fairly normal day in Windsong, Sirenne looked up from a conversation with a nearby island’s ruler to one of her royal guards running into the room in fright. She leaned forward and placed a hand on his shoulder, attempting to calm him, before asking what was wrong. He didn’t give a very direct answer, but he did state that the dungeons seemed darker than usual.. Sirenne knew exactly what he meant, and nodded, before excusing herself to check if what he had said was as severe as he made it out to be. Nervously, she slipped from the throne room into the lower floor. She had been ruling for a long time now- but she had forgotten to check on the seal over the dungeons recently. She had to check it with regularity, lest it begin to falter. When she arrived at the door to the heavily-guarded place, sure enough, the bright seal on the door had begun to darken and become dull. Already, one forgotten checkup had begun to weaken the seal. The horrible creature behind it could break free if it weren’t re-strengthened...but the damage had never gotten this bad before. Sirenne couldn’t do it on her own. So, knowing it was her only option, she sent out a call to her right-hand man. Meanwhile, Akira Haru was goofing around with her friend Phantasm, mostly making playful jokes about their kind, when a ringing sound played. Interrupted, Akira grudgingly checked the wristband she wore. It bore the Windian Emblem, marking her as part of Windsong’s noble class and an ally of Sirenne. After pressing a few buttons, Akira watched as the screen flickered to life, showing Sirenne sending the message. “Sirenne, what is it?”, Akira asked, with a slightly annoyed undertone to her voice. She wasn’t exactly in the mood for any kind of adventuring right now. Phantasm nudged her, reminding her that she should be more respectful to the queen. “Don’t mind her, Phantasm...anyway! Both of you, report to the throne room ASAP. There is an urgent issue I must alert you of,” Sirenne replied. Akira was somewhat confused as to why Sirenne didn’t tell her what was going on on the spot, like she usually did- but of course, she had to listen anyway, and took off. Phantasm was even more confused, but tagged along without too much hesitation. Chapter 2 Once the duo arrived, Akira immediately noticed that Sirenne seemed very nervous. She was pacing back and forth, and it took her a moment to even notice that they had arrived. Jumping and apologizing for her worry, she sat both of them down and began explaining what was going on. “There is an extremely urgent problem at the moment. The seal on the dungeon door is weakening, and terrible things will happen if it breaks.” Confused silence filled the room, and Sirenne tilted her head. “...Are either of you aware of what lies down there?” Both Akira and Phantasm shook their heads. Sirenne had never even told them there was a dungeon in the first place- just never to go down to the lower level. With that, Sirenne sighed, and began explaining in more detail what exactly had happened. “Long ago, I got into quite the battle. Some sort of vaguely draconic creature swirled down from the heavens one day, and took over the body of one of my guards- one of the few females, actually. The merged form called herself Elidra, and seemed to be bent on wiping Windsong out of existence. She certainly seemed to have the power to do so. She could grasp something in the shadowy arms on her back and crush it to dust- no matter how hard it was.” At this point Phantasm was quite worried about what was going on, and they spoke up. “Are you telling me we’re going to have to fi-” “Silence, Phantasm. I’m not finished,” Sirenne interjected. “Anyhow, I noticed what was going on, and I first sent wave after wave of knights to try and stop her. Not one of them survived, unfortunately- so I was forced to fly down and fight her myself. It was a long and bloody battle, indeed, but I somehow managed to reign victorious. After managing to get her into the dungeons, I demanded a safeguard be put in place, to prevent total destruction. So, the seal was formed. It was created with three jewels; a star sapphire, a fire opal, and a peridot. I did not want these enchanted gems to fall into the wrong hands, so after the seal was placed, I hid all three of them. At the time I had placed them where I thought I could easily get to them again, but nowadays I don’t have quite the youth I used to. I can’t access them on my own, and that’s why I call upon you. Both of you have the strength to get to the jewels; at least I hope you do. Your quest is to locate them, bring them back to Windsong, and re-strengthen the seal, before Elidra escapes.” Despite how nervous she was about the ordeal, Akira nodded, and after a little bit of prodding, Phantasm agreed as well. Before the two left, Sirenne said something that truly got them worried. “Be fast. We don’t have much time.” Chapter 3 After leaving the castle and getting their things ready for the trip, Phantasm shook a little and started a conversation with Akira. “Does she really think we can find these things in time?” Akira seemed equally nervous, but nodded, and mentioned that Sirenne didn’t give any estimates as to where they might be. RIght then, her wristband rang again. Another message from Sirenne. “Apologies, I forgot to tell you where the jewels are!”, Sirenne said. “The fire opal resides in the volcanic Ashfall Valley; I figure Phantasm might be able to navigate there. The peridot is at the top of the Breezestep Plateau’s highest cliff. I thought Akira could get to it. As for the star sapphire, it is in the center of the Spiraling Lake. I… hm, I’m not sure if either of you could get to that one…” Phantasm groaned, and chewed Sirenne out a little for not thinking this through all the way. Sirenne apologized, clearly embarrassed, and suggested the two of them try and recruit Orianne on their journey. Her intuitiveness may come in handy. As they left the village, they stopped by the massive kite floating over Windsong- the Laughing Dragon, as everyone had grown accustomed to calling it. Akira told Phantasm she would be right back, before flying up to the kite. There was a small separate community of Lower Earth inhabitants on the platforms of the massive kite, who had formed a sort of flight line from Lower Earth to the Laughing Dragon via smaller flight vehicles, of numerous kinds. After exploring a little, she arrived at the largest home, on the head of the dragon. Calmly, she walked to the door and knocked. After a few seconds, Orianne opened the door, seeming a little flustered about something. She was in her normal garb- a fluffy, tiger-patterned jacket, with grey fluff on the collar and ends of the sleeves. It was normal for Orianne to be worried about something, like a deadline on a project or something else she needed to do. So seeing her coming out with her hair a little frizzy and carrying a few strings and pieces of wood wasn’t exactly out of the ordinary. It was likely that she was working on rather interesting moving decorations for the great Windsong Gala- how unfortunate the festival was approaching as the doomsday clock was ticking down! “Heh, sorry for interrupting your work, Orianne,” Akira said, keeping the calmest tone she could in this trying time. Orianne didn’t seem to notice how skittish she was, and simply apologized for not looking her best, before asking what was going on. Akira was hesitant to tell her- she figured letting her know on the spot that they had to go on a big quest to stop Windsong from being blown to pieces would scare her half to death. So instead, she gave a very basic explanation of what was going on, and said that Orianne needed to come along. Curious and a bit concerned, Orianne decided that she should tag along, just to see what exactly was going on. Chapter 4 After everyone was prepared to go on the trip- with Orianne and Phantasm riding in a small balloon due to inability to fly- they began the flight to the first location to visit, the Ashfall Valley. Landing in the volcanic valley, Akira immediately noticed that Orianne wasn’t taking the heat very well. Given that she spent most of her time in the usually rather chilly Laughing Dragon community, this was understandable. They hadn’t been in the valley for very long, and Orianne was already sweating and seemed very uncomfortable. Akira wasn’t too comfortable with it either, but she could bear it. That’s when both of them noticed Phantasm, who wasn’t even breaking a sweat. Being partially dragon, Phantasm was remarkably heat-resistant. No wonder Sirenne had recommended them for this! After the trio spent some time searching around for the fire opal they needed to find, it became clear that the heat was dangerous to Orianne. She seemed dizzy, and didn’t want to proceed any further. If they didn’t keep an eye on her, she very well might pass out. So Akira led her back to the balloon, before tagging back along with Phantasm. That’s when the two finally found the fire opal. It was perched on a fairly tall rise in the ground, surrounded by a ring of exceptionally hot embers and coals. Akira tried to fly over it, but failed; convection turned out to be her enemy, and the air above the coals was too hot for her to proceed. Phantasm knew they were in their element, and stepped forward, as Akira tried to stop them. Placing a hoof on the burning ground beneath them, Phantasm cracked a grin. “Heh. It tickles a little,” they said. Akira was quite amazed. If she couldn’t even fly several feet above it, Phantasm being able to walk over it with no pain whatsoever was astonishing. So, Phantasm, getting a little cocky, casually strolled forward and climbed the rise- it wasn’t very tall and had quite a few ledges- before grabbing the fire opal…and setting off a trap. Blue flames burst from the coals, even hotter than the coals themselves, and Phantasm barely even had a second to comprehend what was happening before they were apparently consumed. Akira grimaced, and stepped backward, frightened by the flames and capable of feeling the intense heat from where she stood. They roared and crackled for a short while, before dying down, revealing Phantasm…They lay unmoving atop the rise in the earth, seemingly knocked unconscious by the sudden blast, and definitely somewhat singed. Even so, they still gripped the fire opal in their claws. After a brief moment of silence, with Akira wondering if the flames were too much for even Phantasm, the chimera stirred back to life, twitching an ear and looking down at Akira. They forced an embarrassed grin, before complaining that they were hurting and wanted to move on. So, they hopped down from their perch, and led Akira back to the balloon, to check on Orianne. Sure enough, she had passed out. Phantasm sat down next to her and made some efforts to wake her up, as Akira prepared everyone for takeoff. Chapter 5 By the time they arrived at the Breezestep Plateau, Orianne was awake and confused. She had barely gotten to see what had happened, and asked several questions. Akira gave simple answers to all of them, before hastily searching around for the peridot. After a short while she located it, at the top of a sheer cliff, very high and intimidating even for her. She wanted to see if the others could get to it before she gave it a shot, and she asked both of them. Orianne refused outright, stating that she was very bad at climbing, so Phantasm was the one to step forward again. After a bit of grumbling about having to get two in a row, they began making attempts to climb the cliff- and struggled quite a bit. The cliff was far steeper than the rise they’d climbed before, and had nowhere near as many surfaces to grasp. They were forced to dig into the walls with their claws, and the Breezestep Plateau’s normal windy weather was not helping much at all. After a while, their patience was at an end and they gave up, letting go of the cliff and tumbling to the ground. Orianne nervously ran to check if they were okay, as Akira sighed, knowing she was going to have to get the jewel. So, she unfolded her wings and took off. Surprisingly, she hardly struggled at all. After a little bit of hovering and figuring out the air patterns, she rode the currents effortlessly, gliding to the top of the cliff with ease. After she landed, she carefully checked the peridot’s stand for traps, learning from the previous experience, and gingerly picked it up. To her surprise, there was no trap rigged to this one. She figured that the climb to the top would have been hard enough- at least, for most people. Carefully, she aimed her takeoff, before leaping from the cliff and hovering to the ground. Phantasm was complaining about how Akira barely had to do anything when she came back down, as Orianne was grumbling in annoyance. So, the three decided it was time to leave, and entered the balloon to begin the flight to the Spiraling Lake. *** Sirenne entered a secret chamber in her room, looking through piles of personal belongings to find something she protected more than anything else. After a short while of looking, she found a glassy object in the corner of the room, glowing softly. This was a Light dragon egg. She didn’t know what breed would come out, but she treasured the egg anyway- she had plans for it. “You shall be the heir to my throne,” she whispered. Chapter 6 The Spiraling Lake was easily seen from above. Orianne pointed out its rounded, spiraling shape, and that there was a miniscule island in the center- but no clear path to reach it. Landing on the shore, Akira noticed that there wasn’t any visible signs of life in the lake, which was quite odd. She pointed it out to Orianne, and also noted that the lake was quite close to Ashfall Valley. Orianne very quickly put the pieces together. “The volcanic environment near here must have made the water acidic,” she concluded. Of course, Phantasm got a little curious, and they walked over to a nearby patch of grass, plucked some, and tossed it into the water. Sure enough, it set off a reaction, and some fizzing around it. Phantasm kept an eye on it while the other two attempted to formulate a plan. “Don’t you think I could just fly over it? I wouldn’t touch the water, would I?” Akira asked. “That’s probably not a good idea. The chemicals in the water could have risen into the air, and I doubt you’d want to fly through that,” Orianne replied. “So that’s out...What about Phantie? They’re really resistant to a lot of things!” “I’m not sure if even their tough scales would provide too much protection.” “Hm...Maybe you could build something to carry us across?” “I guess that would work!” So, Orianne ran to the balloon and sifted through the things she had brought along, in case she did need to build something, and she came out with several wooden planks, a bottle of white fluid somewhat like glue, and a few ropes. Her plan was to build a raft. She explained what she was going to do- coat the planks in the glue-like substance so they would have more resistance, then tie them together- and Akira seemed to think it was a good idea. After they were briefly interrupted by Phantasm pointing out that the grass they’d thrown in was gone, they began to construct the raft. Once it was done, Orianne used a spare plank she didn’t think she needed for the raft itself as an oar, and set out on a bit of a maiden voyage. Thankfully, the reinforced planks resisted the acidic lake quite well, and Orianne landed on the small central island with little trouble. She carefully checked the star sapphire’s stand for traps, and after deciding that there didn’t seem to be one, she equally carefully picked up the jewel- and sure enough, unwittingly set off a trap. The dip in the ground surrounding the island began to stir, before the water around it reacted violently and sprayed into the air. Orianne knew that it was probably going to land on and burn her, and in a bit of a panic, called for Akira to help. Not missing a beat, Akira flared her wings and flew as fast as she could to the small island. Just as the acidic water was about to reach the two, Akira stretched out her white wing, sheltering Orianne with her black one, and a blast of flames formed from it, evaporating the rainfall trap before it could so much as touch them. Letting out a shaky sigh of relief, Orianne happily thanked Akira and said she was scared half to death, before telling Akira that they could head back. After drifting back across the lake, they crowded back into the balloon, and took off. And so, the trio landed back in Windsong, their quest complete, or so they thought. Chapter 7 Upon entering the throne room, Sirenne couldn’t thank them enough for locating the jewels, and followed them into the lower room. The seal was quite beautiful; light blue patterns reached out across the door from the teardrop-shaped blue center- although it had begun to lose its color. There were three slots for each jewel required to heal it- one orange, one green, one blue. Each of the three stepped forward to place their jewel in the respective slot- but before any of them could place the jewel, the center cracked without any warning. Phantasm swore and jumped backward, and Orianne clung in fear to an equally frightened Akira. Sirenne seemed to be the one who was the most frightened- looking over at her, Akira could tell that she was absolutely mortified. No one got a chance to so much as say anything else before the seal shattered, and fell off the door. The door creaked open slowly, and silence gripped everyone in fear. Nothing happened for a brief while, before a distorted, reverbing cackle echoed through the halls of the dungeon. Shadowy, clawed violet arms reached from the darkness, grasping at the air, before a woman in a dark violet dress, draping over her feet, stepped into the light; shadow hands attached to her back. An unsettlingly wide, toothy grin was spread across her face, showing very sharp, almost shark-like teeth instead of normal human ones. Her eyes were especially odd; while the sclera were so dark blue that they were almost black, her iris was very bright violet, bordering on magenta, with a glowing effect similar to a star ruby. Elidra was free. Immediately flying into a panic, Orianne turned and ran away, not wanting anything to do with fighting a monster. Not missing a beat, Elidra stretched her shadowy arms out to Orianne, snatching her from the ground and tearing several wounds into her, as she screamed for someone to help her...After Orianne was dropped to the ground, bleeding and unconscious, Elidra grinned, and seeming a little cocky, she pulled her claws back and spread them out. “Does anyone wish to try and fight me? I could really use some entertainment after all those boring years,” she announced. Her voice had an unsettling reverb to it, as though her voice had an echoed, reversed copy of it behind it. Sirenne stood up to attempt to take her down, even though she feared she may not have the power. Knowing things were about to get ugly, Akira shielded Phantasm with her wings, tightly closing her eyes. Dark, echoing sounds filled her ears...before Sirenne wailed in agony. Chapter 8 Akira flinched, and looked up from protectively shielding Phantasm, to see Sirenne, lying on the ground, blood pouring from her numerous wounds. Most noticeably, her abdomen had a massive wound going straight through it, as though she had been impaled on Elidra’s clawed shades. She was very clearly on the brink of death, both her nose and her mouth pouring blood as well. In her very last moments, Sirenne choked out an agonizing goodbye, whispering to Akira to protect the glowing egg in her room above all else. With that, the last light in Sirenne’s eyes faded, as they glazed over. The queen of Windsong was dead. Akira was pained by her loss, but there was no time to mourn. She could be killed any second if she remained there for too long. Phantasm was clearly upset as well, but they didn’t express it in the same way. They didn’t seem sad. They were furious. Rather than wanting to mourn, they wanted to kill. They growled, very deeply, and several things about them began to change. Their horns and claws lengthened, the horns taking a lightning-bolt-like shape. Their pupils thinned to tiny slits, and their scorpion-like tail grew in length as well, flushing vivid red. Small, purple ridges on their back grew immensely, bursting from their shirt as fully-formed, fin-like wings. Fully transformed, Phantasm snarled; their animal instincts were coming out, and they were ready to go berserk. Elidra cackled and prepared to fight the enraged chimera. The two charged at each other, and Akira shielded herself with her wings in fear. Blood spilled in that fight, both red and black. Akira couldn’t bear to look for quite a while, but when the roaring and growling changed to whimpering in pain, she finally glanced up from her wings. Elidra was wounded; her arms, face and chest had deep lacerations, bleeding with dull, shineless black blood, almost like ink. Even so, she didn’t seem affected by it at all. That toothy grin was spread across her face again, as she looked down at Phantasm, who was crumpled on the floor, their form returned to normal. They were wounded and bleeding as well. In a desperate attempt to stop Elidra, Akira jumped from where she stood and tried to grab the three jewels they had gathered- but Elidra knocked them from her hands, dropping them to her feet. Cackling with psychotic glee, she slammed her shadow hands to the ground, shattering the jewels with impact alone. Just like that, Akira’s hope shattered as well. She knew that without those jewels, there was no way she could stop Elidra- Windsong was doomed to total destruction. She dropped to her knees, begging desperately for the monster before her to spare whatever tiny amount of mercy she had. Chuckling softly, Elidra stepped past her, and moved her shadow hands across her back. Akira shivered as the ice-cold claws dragged themselves along her back; not enough to slice her skin open, but enough to scrape at it and sting quite a bit. In those moments before Elidra prepared to begin her destruction of Windsong, Akira glanced at the shattered gems before her...and realized something. She could use the magic of those gems to defeat Elidra, shattered or not. If only...she could bring out her pure form. Chapter 9 Standing up and flaring her wings, Akira shouted for her wounded friends to wake up. They both awoke just as she shouted, and managed to bring themselves to her. Akira’s wings glowed brightly as her pure form began to show itself...and even Elidra was startled by the following development. Akira was enveloped by a flash of light...and what came out of that wasn’t Akira anymore. Her wings were larger and seemingly had armor along their top edges; white with blue tips. Her dress was no longer pink, red and blue; instead, it was white, gold and cyan. Her hair was platinum blonde, tipped with white, and her determined eyes glowed green. The noble Zyana Haru had freed herself, and she was ready to fight. Using her amplified magic to support her friends, she levitated the shattered jewel shards around all of them- Phantasm had the fire opal, Orianne, the star sapphire, and herself, the peridot. With her newfound power, she made a strong announcement to Elidra- revealing a powerful echo on her voice. “Foul creature, you will destroy no longer. We know the way to end you once and for all- and that way is here, that time is now!” Her blue-tipped wings flashed brightly, as the jewel shards formed beautiful necklaces for each of the three, the central gem on each glowing brightly as a star. Elidra stepped backward, that toothy grin fading rapidly. She was genuinely scared. What if those necklaces truly did contain the power necessary to defeat her? The three heroes floated upward, forming a glowing orb of light around them. Elidra couldn’t see much of what was going on- though she could see the three of them silhouetted in the nearly blinding light. They opened their eyes, seeming to glow blank white...and without any warning, Elidra was blasted head-on in the chest with a beam of tri-colored magic. Screaming in a mixture of shock and agony, she didn’t have any time to try and defend herself. Her senses seemed to shut off, and from where the beam hit her, her body rapidly changed to stone. Her sight blacked out last, and she was spared from feeling the whole thing. By the time the glow finally faded, a stone statue of a knocked-out Elidra lay against the wall. Zyana changed back into Akira, and she checked on her friends. Phantasm had recovered from their wounds quite quickly, and was flaunting their angular, tribal-looking fire opal necklace with pride. Orianne was heavily wounded, but would live. Her necklace was flowing and smooth all around. Akira’s own necklace was also flowing and smooth, and had a diamond-shaped central gem. The three smiled, and nodded to each other, a job well done. Chapter 10 FINALE Akira then realized there was one last thing she had to do. She left the room for a moment, and returned with a glassy, glowing Light egg. Cuddling it close to her, she wished to protect it, as Sirenne had told her to- and without warning, it cracked. Akira panicked a little, fearing she had broken it- but that was not the case. A tiny, beaked snout poked out from a hole it had broken in the egg, and with a little struggling, the baby dragon pushed itself free. It was feathery, dark crimson with darker red barred patterns in its short, downy coat, similar to a leopard shark’s body patterns. Its wings were bright orange, exposing normal draconic wings under a coat of feathers along the top edge. They switched abruptly from light, to dark, and finally to normal bright orange. Lastly, it had bright red, swirling markings across its body, and light yellow eyes- those of the Light flight. Akira smiled sheepishly, finding the hatchling quite adorable, though she was a little concerned. She was only thirteen! How was she supposed to take care of a dragon? So, naturally, she turned to Orianne. “Oriiii! I’m holding a baby dragon, and I don’t even know what kind of dragon it is. What do?”, she asked. Orianne stepped forward to examine the dragon, before coming to a simple conclusion- the dragon was a male, of the Skydancer species. She proceeded to explain its diet, and eventually came to the conclusion that she’d probably be better to take care of it. Akira grinned, and gently patted the hatchling on the head. “I’ll name you Faroku,” she said. *** Faroku looked out over his kingdom, smiling softly. This wasn’t the life he knew he would lead, but it was a pleasant one. With Sirenne’s death and his birth, he was to be the heir to her throne- and so it was. Orianne had raised him to be as good of a leader as Sirenne was, and he followed the same benevolent path she did, as King of Windsong. It had been about ten years since Elidra was defeated. Faroku had grown, and everyone had grown along with him. He was still quite young for a dragon, but he didn’t seem to mind being given his duty at such a young age. Orianne did a very good job of guiding him along- as did Akira and Phantasm, who had learned from each other and formed a closer bond than ever before. When Orianne ran into the room, carrying a few snacks for her adopted son, Faroku grinned and played with her for a short while, before returning to looking from his perch. He folded a wing over Orianne, smiling and cuddling her close to him. They held one of the tightest bonds in all of Windsong, and no one believed they would ever drift apart. The two sat down, Faroku gently holding his wing around Orianne, and they remained that way, watching the sun set. Peace and love rang true that day. FIN Category:Canon Fics Category:Tales of Windsong